Pitch Perfect 2 (Review)

Pitch Perfect 2 (2015)

Comedy, Music

Directed By: Elizabeth Banks

Way back in 2012, when the world was supposed to end, summer moviegoers of all ages were given an unexpected treat when Pitch Perfect chimed into theaters. While the movie tended to be geared towards the YA audience it didn't stop it from becoming one of the biggest movies of that year. I myself am not ashamed to say that I unabashedly love it. The flick is surprisingly funny, witty, smart and completely fresh. It was a movie I never thought I'd go for that I ended up loving, so it goes without saying that me and a lot of other people had our hopes up for the sequel. With Elizabeth Banks stepping into the directors chair for the first time all eyes were on her and for the most part, she delivers.

The next chapter in the Bella's tale picks up three years after the events of the first movie. It's senior year for Beca (Anna Kendrick) and The Bella's have been dominating the collegiate acapella scene ever since she took the reigns. We also find out that Chloe (Brittany Snow) has purposely failed the past three years just to stay and compete, the team has become their lives. That is until the good name of the team is dragged in the mud after an unfortunate wardrobe malfunction, they find themselves suspended indefinitely. With it being the final year at Barden for many of the girls they refuse to just take their punishment. They make a deal with the board to reinstate the Bella's if they win at the World Championships. A feat no American team has ever accomplished, of course.

What's most fun about the sequel is that The Bella's aren't the boring Bella's we had to suffer through for most of the first movie. While the arrangements were still solid they just weren't as energetic and exciting as the rest of the soundtrack. It made every time they hit the stage in the new one that much more exciting, we didn't know what they were going to do. They also make better use of the competition as well. Between all the musical numbers in the first two acts and everything at the Worlds, Pitch Perfect 2 brings in a much more diverse and expansive soundtrack.

Personally, I think a lot of my love for the first film comes from my deep adoration of Anna Kendrick, and the same goes for this one. When she's on screen almost all of my attention is on her and she almost never disappoints. Dabbling a little more with comedy this time around, Anna ends up delivering some of the funniest side jokes of the movie. If we are speaking of comedy though, Rebel Wilson steals the show. Reprising her role as our favorite "Fat Amy (Patricia)" she had me in tears from the first moment she appears on screen. She takes the hilarity to the next level in the first ten minutes of the movie and never lets up.

Banks does a solid job as a freshman director. Considering the anticipation for this movie and the giant task at hand it's hard to believe this is her first time behind the camera. The movie isn't perfect but neither was its predecessor. This is more or less a movie made to please the fans and that's precisely what it does. Banks basically turns the dial up to 11 bringing in more songs, higher stakes, tons more characters and plenty more jokes. She reprises her role from the first movie commentating the events alongside the wonderful John Michael Higgins and their comments are even racier, if you can believe it. Oh, and did I mention cameos? Tons of fantastic cameos. (I'm calling for a spinoff of a certain bald comedian playing a certain bald music producer. It would be incredible) 

Banks doesn't get too deep emotionally with the story, though she does a good job blending in some important themes. The most prominent being life after college. We see this problem brought up repeatedly with our main cast as they try to figure out what to do after graduation. We see Kendrick's character take an internship at a studio to try and try and follow her dreams while also keeping it secret from Chloe. She's been purposely failing to stay in school and though she says its for the Bella's it doesn't take long to realize she has no idea what she wants to so after she leaves. This problem resonates with  the young adult crowd more than ever these days and is often overlooked in mainstream cinema. Often college set movies will end with the cast going off to live the amazing lives they planned out in college, something that rarely happens in the real world. 

If I had to make one major complaint about this flick it would be that there isn't enough Trebelmakers and not enough Adam Devine. This is basically The Avengers of teenage acapella movies though so I understand it's hard to give everyone screen time. They do find plenty of screen time for new comer Emily (Hailee Steinfeld) though, as it seems like they want her to take the reigns if they want to keep this franchise rolling (after seeing the opening numbers it's hard to believe they won't want milk this thing as long as possible). I don't know how I feel about more movies without familiar faces like Anna Kendrick and Rebel Wilson but they found a good place to start, with Steinfeld. Inevitably this could never live up to the original, it was just too fresh of an idea and there was really no way to recapture that first time magic. With that being said, Elizabeth Banks and company brought to screen a more than worthy sequel that will satisfy all your a-ca-needs. I took my little brother and sister to see a matinee and there were nothing but smiles leaving the theater. 

As always, thanks for reading! I am Zach Who Watches Movies and you can find me on twitter @ZachWWMovies, smell ya later